North Florida CART Performs Exercise to Earn Federal Certification

By Phil Kiracofe

The North Florida Child Abduction Response Team (CART) held a full-scale exercise in October that could earn it the first national certification of any CART team in the country. More than 100 participants and observers from local, state and federal partner agencies came together for the exercise while a certification team from Fox Valley Technical College conducted an assessment of the team’s performance.

The full team receives a briefing
on the exercise

Shortly after 7 a.m. on exercise day, CART Team members were notified by the Childis Missing alert system that a 14-year-old girl had just been abducted on her way to school. As initial response agency, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office responded to the area and set up a command post to oversee coordination of witness interviews and search efforts utilizing helicopters and ground personnel from several agencies.

Several miles away, Incident Command quickly went operational and mobile assets from several CART agencies, including FDLE, Florida Highway Patrol and Tallahassee Police Department, assembled and started providing critical support functions. The Fox Valley certification team assumed a “fly on the wall” presence at Incident Command and other exercise locations to observe all aspects of the team’s response and assess its compliance with policy, operational capacity and overall performance.

CART members enter incoming tips
into a leads tracking system

The exercise was given extensive media coverage. Local and national media organizations were given behind the scenes access in order to provide a glimpse into how multiple agencies work cooperatively to rescue an abducted child. Media teams included CNN which is working on a documentary style production on the CART concept. A CNN producer had contacted FDLE several months ago wanting to base the production on Florida’s groundbreaking concept that serves as the model for Fox Valley’s training curriculum.

Fox Valley, headquartered in Wisconsin with an office in Washington, D.C., presents CART training under the auspices of the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). To date, Fox Valley has trained 96 teams in 34 states. To earn certification, teams must first go through Fox Valley training then hold an assessed exercise to demonstrate a high level of proficiency and compliance with accepted national standards.

Inside the Command Post, Special Agent Supervisor Bill Butler (left in black) directs the team’s next steps

In addition to observing a mock exercise, the certification process includes a review of a CART Team’s organizational charts, protocols, checklists, resource inventory, forms and Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs). National certification, awarded jointly by OJJDP and Fox Valley, was created as a means to officially recognize teams that meet nationally accepted standards.

The certification team has forwarded its recommendation to the Justice Department which is expected to render its decision soon.

The “abductor” is apprehended.